SEA TURTLES 
TRUNKBACK TURTLE 
Despite their immense bulk, trunkback, or leathery turtles swim swiftly 
and easily along the ocean bottom in search of food. Their limbs are long, 
flat and paddle-like, lacking the plates characteristic of other sea turtles. 
Little is known of this giant reptile’s habits, but the construction of its 
jaws leads scientists to believe that it eats seaweeds, fishes, mollusks and 
shellfishes. 
The trunkback is the largest of sea turtles, in fact the largest of all 
living reptiles, record specimens having weighed as much as fifteen hun¬ 
dred pounds. The head, which like the body is also plateless, may have 
a diameter of ten inches, while the flipper-spread may be as much as 
nine feet. The armor of this seagoing fortress consists of seven heavy keels, 
running lengthwise down the back and covered with a leathery skin. The 
color is dark brown or black, sometimes spotted with yellow. It is from 
this huge shell that the god Hermes was believed to have fashioned the 
first harp. Since in ancient times the trunkback actually did inhabit the 
Mediterranean, it is quite possible that the early Greeks fashioned musical 
instruments from its shell. 
At mating time the female trunkback crawls out on the beach above 
the tide line and digs a hole about two feet deep, using her hind feet 
as scoops. She neatly arranges her ninety to one hundred and fifty eggs 
in the nest, smooths out the sand so as to leave no trace of her activities 
and departs never to return. 
After the sun’s heat has incubated the eggs, the young crack their 
shell by means of a hooked egg tooth on their beaks and make their way 
to the water. 
In India and Ceylon where Deraniyagala has observed this giant turtle 
the monitor lizard eats the trunkback’s eggs, and sea birds prey on the 
young. It is curious to note that only young and fully grown trunkbacks 
have been observed. Half-grown specimens are unknown. 
The flesh of this chelonian is not eaten. The oil, however, is used in 
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